


Just You, Just Me

by slightlytookish



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Canon Era, Character Study, Episode: s01e05 Crossroads, Established Relationship, Hand Jobs, M/M, Mild Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-16 14:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20837426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlytookish/pseuds/slightlytookish
Summary: Lew turns twenty-six midway through his nightly walk along the line, and tries to convince Dick that everything he needs is right here.





	Just You, Just Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "noise discipline" prompt at the [Loose Lips Sink Ships prompt meme](https://looselipssinkships.altervista.org/) and also for Nix's birthday. 
> 
> This can be read as a follow-up/companion piece to the fic I wrote for Dick's birthday, [The Words to Say](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17498729), but it's not at all necessary to read that first and this one stands on its own. I just really like writing birthday fic.
> 
> I've played a little fast and loose with the timeline here, but it mostly follows the tv series canon.
> 
> Thank you to Muccamukk for betaing! Any remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> The title is from the 1929 song of the same name.

September 30, 1944  
Uden, Holland

Lew turned twenty-six midway through his nightly walk along the line. Light and noise discipline were in effect, but there was just enough moonlight for him to see the hands on his watch marching across the dial towards midnight. He didn't stop to mark their progress, but a dozen or so foxholes later when he looked again and noted the time, he took a swig from his flask. It was the last of the schnapps he'd found - his dwindling supply of Vat 69 was still safe in Dick's footlocker, which he hoped would catch up to them sooner rather than later - but he supposed it was a fitting enough toast for his second consecutive birthday on foreign soil. Besides, if he were given a choice between Dick's footlocker and the man himself, he knew what he'd choose every time.

Dick was asleep when Lew finally made it back to their foxhole, curled up around his M1 with his back against the wall. Or at least, Lew thought he was asleep until he dropped down beside him, but Dick propped himself up on an elbow fast enough that Lew suspected he'd just been lying silently in the dark. Worrying about the men on patrol and running through the casualty lists for the thousandth time, most likely, or else stewing over the utter frustration that was Operation Market Garden. 

"Hey, Nix. Any news?"

"Patrol's back, they didn't run into any Krauts." Lew took off his helmet and let it fall somewhere around his feet. Dick's gaze immediately went to his forehead, undoubtedly searching for the burn mark there, so faded over the past couple of days that it probably couldn't be seen in the dark. It hadn't even looked like much when he'd got it. Lew had been more than a little embarrassed to waste a medic's time looking at it when it was his helmet that was worse for the wear, but Dick had insisted. He'd dragged Lew over to Roe himself, and stood by, stiff-shouldered and serious while Roe prodded at Lew's forehead, turning his face this way and that before he finally sprinkled some sulfa on the mark and said he was fine, and most likely wouldn't even have a scar.

"Well, there goes my chance for a Purple Heart, huh, Doc?" Nix had replied, trying to catch Dick's eye with a grin as if to say, _I told you so, now stop worrying, for Christ's sake_.

But Dick had only nodded and said, very softly, "Good," and he'd looked so staggeringly relieved that Lew felt like a heel for teasing him.

Now, Lew took another swig from his flask. "Stopped by the OP. They saw a couple Tigers heading north, but they were too far away and moving too fast to do anything about." 

The 101st would be heading north too, to Nijmegen that day or the next, but he'd told Dick that already, as soon as he'd heard the news from the Regiment S2. They'd likely meet those Tigers soon enough, but for now they were somebody else's problem. 

He said as much to Dick, who seemed inclined to agree and finally set his M1 aside, reaching for Lew instead. He tugged Lew closer than he ever would have dared in the daylight, though their foxhole was narrow enough that their proximity wouldn't have raised any eyebrows even if the sun had been shining. The kiss Dick gave him, on the other hand, would have. 

As brief as it was, hardly more than a fleeting brush of chapped lips against his own, it still made Lew's heart leap. So did Dick's smile - the warm, gentle one he only ever seemed to use on Lew, for some reason Lew still couldn't begin to understand. "Happy birthday, Nix." 

"What do you say we make it my birthday every day, if you're going to greet me like that," Lew replied. Dick rolled his eyes, but then he brushed Lew's hair aside and leaned up to kiss his forehead, and Lew knew that day in Nuenen was still on his mind.

At least Dick wasn't looking at him with that awful, pinched look of fear on his face anymore. Still, Lew figured neither of them needed to spend any more time thinking about how he'd almost bought it on a dirt road five days ago. "You think Dominguez would bake me a cake if I ask him nicely?"

"I think he's a little low on supplies for that," Dick said wryly. "But maybe we can arrange for you to get a couple of extra beans in your soup today."

"Oh, just what I always wanted. How'd you ever guess?"

Dick shook his head. "I'd hoped we'd be in a billet by now. You took me to London for my last birthday." 

He sounded as low and frustrated as he had ever since the 101st failed to take the bridge at Son - which was right around when they'd all figured out what a shitshow this operation was going to be - and he looked just as troubled. Lew hated to think that he was adding to it somehow, albeit unintentionally, that his birthday was yet another thing piled on to the many other disappointments that Dick always took too much to heart: the shoddy intelligence, Easy getting their asses kicked again and again, the retreats, the loss of good men in battles that went nowhere. Lew couldn't do much about any of that, but he refused to be the cause of those worry lines on Dick's face.

"Technically, I took you to London the day _after_ your birthday," he said. Dick threw him an unimpressed look. "And what, you'd want to leave this four-star establishment? We've got four solid walls and bean soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's rained almost every day, if you're feeling homesick for England, and if you're hankering for show tunes I'll find George Luz and get him to serenade you." A corner of Dick's mouth was finally beginning to lift in a half-smile and Lew plunged on, shrugging expansively. "I've gotta say, Dick, I'm not sure what a night on the town in London has to offer that we don't already have here."

"Someplace with a roof," Dick immediately replied, and then, low enough that Lew had to strain to hear him, "and a bed."

Their voices hadn't risen above a murmur since Lew had got back, but that made him laugh aloud. Dick quickly shushed him, but his lips were pressed together tight like he was trying to look disapproving but was really trying not to smile. It was too dark to tell if Dick was blushing, but Lew would bet good money that he was. "Hey, don't worry about it. I've got everything I need right here."

Dick's expression softened at that, which meant Lew had temporarily succeeded in his objective: get Dick Winters to stop worrying. It was an ongoing battle, and one he expected to be fighting for as long as they were at war. "Is that so?"

"Sure." Lew just hoped Dick knew how much he truly meant it. Thirteen days of trundling through Holland and he could count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times they'd been alone together, and one of those times was when they were getting shot at in a belfry. Now they were not only alone, but they had a foxhole to themselves and the line was quiet. It had even finally stopped raining. Lew had never considered himself particularly ambitious, but the more he thought about it, the harder it was not to act on the possibilities. He just wasn't sure if Dick would want to play along. "But, you know. Since you mentioned it. I can see some room for improvement."

He watched Dick's face, saw the moment when it registered for him, waited for Dick to think it over. It didn't take very long. "Is that so?" Dick said again. He gave Lew a long, considering look that left Lew suddenly feeling hot all over. Well, the way Dick had started trailing his hand along Lew's side helped, too. "Well, let's hear your ideas."

Lew always had ideas, good ones too, and right now the most pressing one was that they really needed to be kissing, so he started with that. Any lingering doubts he'd had that Dick might not want to play along vanished when Dick kissed him back. It was the kind of kiss Lew had only dreamed about for the past two weeks, the kind that felt like it was going on forever, with tongue and teeth and Dick's hand suddenly in his pants. Lew broke the kiss with a curse, louder than he meant to be, and Dick shifted enough to clap his other hand over Lew’s mouth. 

"Noise discipline, Lew," he whispered in his ear. "Wouldn't want all those old men and kids to hear."

Lew let himself shake with laughter under his hand for a moment before he composed himself and pried Dick's fingers away. "You're never gonna let me hear the end of that one, are you? War will be over and you'll-" 

He broke off then, because Dick managed to get his fly open and was stroking him now, without any fabric in the way, and Lew decided he didn't care about anything other than getting Dick's fly open too. And then he couldn't spare a thought for anything other than Dick's cock alongside his, Dick's hand stroking them both, and Dick's lips over his own, swallowing up all of Lew's cries that surely would have broken noise discipline.

"Like I said," Lew said later, after they'd cleaned up enough to pass inspection. "Got everything I want right here." He patted Dick's hip to make the point, and Dick looked over at him with a smile Lew could only describe as fond. 

"Yeah," he said. "Me too."


End file.
